Automation windows for robotic process automation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12583106-B2
Application number	US-202217733591-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2022
Priority date	Feb 18, 2020
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

Automation windows for RPA for attended or unattended robots are disclosed. A child session is created and hosted as a window including the UIs of applications of a window associated with a parent session. Running multiple sessions allows a robot to operate in this child session while the user interacts with the parent session. The user may thus be able to interact with applications that the robot is not using or the user and the robot may be able to interact with the same application if that application is capable of this functionality. The user and the robot are both interacting with the same application instances and file system. Changes made via the robot and the user in an application will be made as if a single user made them, rather than having the user and the robot each work with separate versions of the applications and file systems.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program, the computer program configured to cause at least one processor to:
initialize an automation in a child session as a process; and execute the automation, wherein a child session window of the child session is located within a parent session window of an operating system, during execution, the automation executes a workflow comprising a plurality of activities within the child session, and a user interacting with an instance of an application does not interfere with the automation interacting with a different instance of the application via the child session or an instance of a different application via the child session, the child session is launched from an application in a different session, communication between the application and the automation is accomplished using an inter-process communication (IPC) protocol, and the application is configured to send commands to the automation process via the IPC protocol.

2 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein when executing the plurality of activities in the workflow, the automation interacts with one or more common applications running on a computing system that are accessible via both a parent session and the child session.

3 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein a parent session and the child session have access to a common file system on a common computing system.

4 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein
the child session is a child of a parent session for an operating system, and the child session window is launched from an application in the parent session window.

5 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the automation is configured to send status notifications to the tray application via the IPC protocol.

6 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:
automatically end the child session after the automation completes execution of the workflow.

7 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:
launch an additional child session that shares a common file system with the child session; initialize another automation in the additional child session; and execute the other automation.

8 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein when the automation is attended and a user attempts to interact with an application that the automation is interacting with, the computer program is further configured to cause the at least one processor to:
display a message to the user indicating that the automation is currently accessing the application.

9 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein
the child session is executed at design time, the automation performs an attended automation, and an integrated development environment (IDE) application executes on a computing system associated with a parent session and is configured to initiate the attended automation.

10 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein a parent session and the child session run on different computing systems.

11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the parent session window for a parent session, the child session window for the child session, or both, comprise a window representing a user interface (UI) displayed within a main UI, a second screen of a second display of a computing system, a virtual desktop, or an isolated environment.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the launching of the child session, the initialization of the automation in the child session, and the execution of the automation are performed via a remote computing system.

13 . A computer-implemented method for performing attended automation at design time, comprising:
launching a child session from an integrated development environment (IDE); initializing automation in the child session as a process; and executing the automation, wherein a child session window of the child session is located within a parent session window of an operating system, during execution, the automation executes workflow comprising a plurality of activities within the child session, and a user interacting with an instance of an application does not interfere with the automation interacting with a different instance of the application via the child session or an instance of a different application via the child session; the child session is launched from an application in a different session, communication between the application and the automation is accomplished using an inter-process communication (IPC) protocol, and the application is configured to send commands to the automation process via the IPC protocol.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving status messages from the automation during its operation; and displaying the status messages in the IDE.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein when a user provides a command to terminate operation of the automation, the method further comprises:
terminating operation of the automation and the child session, by the IDE.

16 . A computing system, comprising:
memory storing computer program instructions; and computer implemented method, comprising: at least one processor configured to execute the computer program instructions, wherein the computer program instructions are configured to cause the at least one processor to:
initialize automation in a child session as a process, by a computing system; and
execute the automation, by the computing system, wherein a child session window of the child session is located within a parent session window of an operating system, during execution, the automation executes workflow comprising a plurality of activities within the child session, and a user interacting with an instance of an application does not interfere with RPA robot interacting with a different instance of the application via the child session or an instance of a different application via the child session; the child session is launched from an application in a different session, communication between the application and the automation is accomplished using an inter-process communication (IPC) protocol, and the application is configured to send commands to the automation process via the IPC protocol.

17 . The computing system of claim 16 , wherein
the child session is launched from an application, communication between the application and the automation is accomplished using an inter-process communication (IPC) protocol, and the application is configured to send commands to the automation process via the IPC protocol.

18 . The computing system of claim 16 , wherein when executing the plurality of activities in the workflow, the automation interacts with one or more common applications running on a computing system that are accessible via both a parent session and the child session.

19 . The computing system of claim 16 , wherein the computer program instructions are further configured to cause the at least one processor to:
automatically end the child session after the automation completes execution of the workflow.

Assignees

• Uipath Inc

Inventors

• Hall Andrew

Classifications

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06F9/54

  Interprogram communication · CPC title

• G05B2219/31124

  Interface between communication network and process control, store, exchange data · CPC title

• G05B2219/50391

  Robot · CPC title

• G06F9/546

  Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues · CPC title